The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has joined the investigation into the murder of Judge Volodymyr Trofymov of Frunze District Court in Kharkiv and his family, Interfax-Ukraine learned at the SBU's press center on Sunday, Dec.16.
Quoting SBU Chief Ihor Kalinin, the press center said that the SBU’s press service representatives and its employees were included into the task force investigating the murder, along with the officers of the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to Kalinin, as the late judge was one of the leading coin collectors in Ukraine, and was known outside the country, investigators are looking into the possibility that the murder was connected with these activities, including those conducted outside Ukraine.
On December 16, the decapitated bodies of Judge Trofymov, his wife, his son and his son’s girlfriend were found on Saturday in the judge’s flat. A criminal case under Article 115 (premeditated murder) was opened. Investigators are currently establishing the circumstances of the murders.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said on Monday that investigators were working on three major lines of inquiry. “These are that the murder was linked to the professional activities of the victim, murder in order to seize the property of the victim, or a contract killing. These are the principle working theories,” Pshonka said.
